Posted on 01/16/2012 2:10:12 PM PST by TBBT
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (CNN) - Newt Gingrich delivered a staunch warning to South Carolina conservatives Monday: "Any conservative who votes for anyone but Newt helps elect a moderate as the nominee."
Gingrich was speaking to a tea party-friendly audience in South Carolina's Horry County when he painted presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney as unelectable in a general election.
"Ask yourself this simple question: Why would you want to nominate the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama?"
"The only reason [Romney] is electable right now is because he has raised more money from Wall Street to buy more ads than anybody else in the race, and we're not going to win that game," Gingrich said. "If you count how much money you can raise as the number one test of electability, Obama's going to drown him."
Gingrich has five days to drive home the message that Romney can't beat President Barack Obama. In order to stop the former Massachusetts governor's crushing momentum, Gingrich needs to rally conservatives behind him over competitor Rick Santorum, who has strong evangelical support and has fared better than the former House speaker in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"If you're a conservative, just look at the polls. I am the only candidate capable of stopping a moderate from winning the nomination," said Gingrich.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
During a press availability Monday, Gingrich pointed out why he's a stronger candidate than the former Pennsylvania senator.
"Evangelical voters would like to have a nominee that will win a general election, and somebody who set the all time Pennsylvania record for the size of their defeat has a harder case to make as to why they could be elected," Gingrich told reporters.
"If you vote for Sen. Santorum, in effect you're voting for Gov. Romney to be the nominee because he's not going to beat him. And the only way you can stop Gov. Romney for all practical purposes is to vote for Gingrich. That's just a fact and it's a mathematical fact now."
Ok Santorum clingers... Tell me... If you are from S.C., or hypothetically were... What if the polls that come out on the eve of the S.C. primary show that Newt is within striking distance of Romney and Santorum is hopelessly way behind - what will you do then? Who will you cast your vote for? Would you still pull the lever for Santorum?
Interesting strategy by Newt.
Yea they would and then after Romney get’s the nomination we will listen to them bitch here for 10 months. Count on it.
Yet Newt is trailing Santorum in the delegate count. Go figure. By Newt's reasoning, everyone should be voting for Santorum since he is closer to passing Romney. But then, logic is not Newt's strong suit.
Oddly enough, I can agree with that. Santorum is the closest we can get to a Theocrat. Can’t deal with that.
If you vote for Newt McGingrich, you are in essence voting for Rombama. No, it is not a fact. Nor is it a mathematical fact outside of the mind of the man that lost to the candidate he is dissing in the first two primaries and those of his cult-like followers.
Why vote for Newt who has less delegates than Newt. Newt hs been a disaster with regards to getting actual goes. He needs to go. A big talker with Zero results!
Uh, because we’re talking about a primary in a state where Santorum is far behind Newt.
ARG South Carolina Poll: Romney 29, Gingrich 25 (Santorum 7)
ARG Florida Poll: Romney 42, Gingrich 25 (Santorum 9)
At this late point in the campaign, you are either all-in for Newt or you're okay with, or resigned to, Willard.
We may be Tea Party, constitutionalists, social & fiscal conservatives, but strategic geniuses? Um.... not so much. Zealots, maybe? And at all costs, never mind the math. We are Utopians now?
The primary voter who votes for who they “think” or are told can win instead of who they really want - throws away their vote.
They are letting the local and State political committees dictate who the party nominee will be.
The time for voters to “get behind” their party’s candidate is in the general election against the other party.
The time for every voter to vote for who they really want to see elected is in their party primary.
If the “machine” favorite still wins the primary, the spread of votes between the losing candidates...
will send a clear message to the party about what real, actual, live voters are wanting in that election cycle.
If every voter votes for the “machine” candidate in a primary - no one will ever know what was on the voter’s minds.
Electability is an issue left over from pre-television days when the parties ran extremely closed nominations, when one typically needed to be well-known in political circles to have any chance of being nominated.
The party and the media are desperately clinging to that capability - and using all sorts of bizarre manipulations to do so.
This is actually a plus for Santorum. The election showed that Pennsylvania voters are loyal first and foremost to longtime Pennsylvanians. In that election between Casey, there were two and only two issues that were meaningful:
1. Bob Casey was the son of beloved former governor Robert Casey, Sr.
2. Rick Santorum doesn't even live in Pennsylvania, but is really from Virginia
In an election between Santorum and Obama, Pennsylvania voters will overwhelmingly choose Santorum.
And then there's Newton Leroy Gingrich who has never won statewide office in his life. People in glass houses . . .
Funny. Newt hasn't been able to prove this prior to the SC Primary. What is there to show that he can do it now?
Delegate count:
Mittens 14
Paul 10
Santorum 7
Gingrich 2
Perry 2
Huntsman 2
Geeeze....what do we have...?
Newt, Santorum, Perry?
Pathetic....but still better than Willard...and a gazillion times better than zer0bama.
You must be a silver tongued devil! Santorun is against just about everything Paul is for. Newt is far closer to Paul on issues. If I ever need a lawyer I am calling you, you are good!
but now is much more fun..we get to listen to the newtters bitch
Sure I would.
Because if the facts were all the same, but Santorum and Gingrich’s place in the polls were reversed and Santorum was within striking distance of Romney, you would still pull the lever for Newt.
How do I know this? Simple: IA. Newt was clearly in a freefall and Santorum was rising. The smartest thing to do would have been for the Newt people here to cut their IA losses and support Santorum en masse that would have given him a clear victory over Romney. Even if just 1/2 of the Newt voters in IA had jumped to Santorum, that would have been enough to cut off whatever momentum the media has been trying to generate out of Romney’s “8-vote” victory and “back-yard” landslide.
So why should Santorum voters play ball when the Newt voters didn’t?
A fair assessment, and there is not a chance we'll ever have to "deal with that." Moderates wont touch it.
But Moderates do like common sense, and no one does common sense better than Newt.
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